WHAT MAKES A SMART TV DUMB?

Those shiny new smart TV’s. They lure you in making you drool for the technology. The things you can do – Netflix, YouTube, streaming this, streaming that, connect to the internet. The options are endless. But…what are the odds that we would get two smart TV’s that were both one brick shy of a load?

I’ve renamed them Dumb and Dumber. Dumb had a hairline fracture to the skull that made him fuzzy and distorted. Where was that fantastic picture we were promised? Clear, clean, and beautiful was in the description. Not fuzzy, wobbly, and lines through the images. We should have expected this because when he arrived at our doorstep his packing box had seen better days!

We packed Dumb snuggly and warm back in his shipping cradle and using almost a whole roll of packing tape helped put it in better shape than when he arrived. Six weeks after we place our order he arrived back where he started. He’s probably awaiting surgery as I type.A week later Dumber waltzed in to take Dumb’s place. Bright and shiny new again because – I’m sorry – we didn’t have the time or patience to wait on Dumb to have surgery. Hopefully he will soon find a family and have a place to call home. It wasn’t his fault his shipping cradle had holes!

Dumber’s name says it all. One brick shy of a load…Not the brightest light in the harbor…A few screws short of a hardware store…Not the sharpest knife in the drawer…The gates are down and the lights are flashing, but the train isn’t coming… Well, you get it don’t you? I’m not sure he does.

Dumber has no idea how to connect to the network. Heck! He can’t even find any network, not even his own! After positioning him in three different places, multiple SSID and password entry’s, three lengthy phone calls and twenty-four hours later we have given up the thought he might improve with age.

It’s off to the warehouse hospital for you Dumber. You twin brother is awaiting a reunion! Third time’s the charm. Hopefully they weren’t triplets.

About Elle Knowles

Elle Knowles lives in the Florida Panhandle with her husband and off-at-college-most-of-the-time son. She has four daughters, one son, and eleven beautiful grandchildren. 'Crossing the Line' is her first novel. The sequel 'What Line' is a work in progress. Recently published is Coffee-Drunk Or Blind - a nonfiction story of homesteading in the Alaska wilderness with her parents and four siblings, told through letters by her mother and remembered accounts from the family.

Fabulous post! AND OMB! how true! I mean, this is how it is. I call it the 21st Century Disease. Nothing’s as good as it was, or made as well as it was back in the day (of course, I didn’t have tv as a kid, so what do I know lol)… I LOVE technology but technology doesn’t love me back. It just doesn’t work. And trying to get help is like hopping on the boat that has a hole in it… it just keeps going down – or as they’ve always said about the million times a person watched “Titanic” It sunk again. That’s exactly what it feels like.

But you surely did put a smile on my face with your way with telling a story.

I now have only one TV and although it has digital picture. It does not have any of those app. thingys. When in London for my niece’s wedding two years ago. My Mom wanted one – a digital TV with all the whistles, for she was lured at the prospect of Netflix on her TV. Unfortunately after she had purchased it and my brother-in-law and myself, set it up for her. I could see she was confused by the array of buttons on the remote. The menu screens and when finally into Netflix. Trolling what was for offer. None of the selections appealed to her. For she wanted Dickens and Emily Bronte. I think she actually believed a service like Netflix would carry those films. Heck they didn’t even have Tess on offer.

So, that was enough to convince myself, that I was happy enough watching the film service on my computer. The screen is almost the size of my TV, anyway.

The TV itself, I used to pay for a lot of channels but got fed-up with Clint Eastwood reruns. Not only that but since the TV service deliverer went digital. The reception is lousy. The signal continues to pause, go blank and break up into brick-like segments. Seemingly, never when the ads are running. Slap-bang in the middle of the few good shows they do run.

So, my conclusion is this. Once this TV of mine dies. Out goes the whole shebang. Apple TV box is looking attractive about now. Where the subscriber pays only for the channels they want? … Maybe?? I should follow my kid’s lead and not watch TV? For I find little content. 80 channels of nothing. That is enjoyable, for me, anyway. I really only use it to determine that the big one, has not gone off …?

Now don’t knock Clint Eastwood Jamie. He’s my favorite! 😉 I’d be just as happy to hook my Netflix box Andrew got me for Mothers Day last year to this TV. That’s all I’ll probably use it for anyway, but if we are going to spend this much money we might as well get the whole package. Hopefully # three won’t be sickly! ~Elle

I was not complaining about Mr. Eastwood. Just the repetition of thirty year old films. Of which the most prevalent were those. Personally not my favourite genre. Netflix is okay. It has a good general selection. My gripe about them is once you like a film, Netflix wants to toss similar ones at you. I don’t suppose they have a bracket for eclectic, do you?

I try to avoid those that concentrate on wickedness and gratuitous violence. For there is enough of that in the real world. Cheers Jamie.